Various concrete structures have been disclosed for use in land and marine based applications. These applications include civil and structural applications such as walls, retaining walls, and breakwaters. These structures have included used tires as a component. Prior concrete structures incorporating used tires have usually suffered from one or more of the following problems or disadvantages: (1) low tire usage, (2) bare tires exposed to water in the environment, (3) risk of slippage and movement during use on inclined dirt banks, (4) inefficient stackability, (5) requiring field welding to connect units, and (6) insufficient system structural performance capability.
Examples of prior concrete systems include Kiselewski U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,309—a concrete clad tire log having a plurality of used tires made into a form by placing them in side wall to side wall contact and filling the form with concrete; Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,319—a monolithic revetment made of motor vehicle rubber tires and concrete; Nordberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,616—a method and container for encapsulating tires involving encapsulating a compacted bundle of tires and forming a cube of concrete having a hole; Baker U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,622—an earth stabilization structure comprising compressed annular tire walls; Clarke U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,528—a building construction incorporating recycled tires which have been in the form of compacted bales; Nordberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,897—a concrete block having a compacted bundle of tires encased in concrete; Pulsifer U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,793—a method and apparatus for using automotive tires as earth engineering devices; Lederbauer U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,577—a noise-absorbing greenery carrying structure made of worn tires; Haile U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,541—interlocking planters; Barthel U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,294—a method and means for erosion control; Cacossa, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,124—a beach stabilizer; Foehrkolb U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,088—a retaining wall made using segmented automobile tires; Lebanc U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,475—an erosion barrier system made from tires; Baker, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,175—earthen dams; Stiles, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,606—beach protectors made from used tires; Metten U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,561—concrete blocks having water drainage holes; and Terreta U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,076—a planter edging landscape system.
Each of these systems suffers from one or more of the previously described problems or disadvantages. Consequently, they either make relatively low or no use of used tires, allow bare tires to be exposed to water, run the risk of slippage and movement during use on inclined dirt banks, offer inefficient stackability, require field welding to provide structural continuity, and/or have insufficient system structural performance capability.
There is a need to provide general structural elements and methods for making and using them which have high content levels of used tire usage, structurally efficient and predictable characteristics, efficiently stackable features, slip resistance and other characteristics that enhance structural performance.